


A Thorn in Chat's Paw

by cosmicoyote



Series: When Cats and Mice Play [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Assistance needed, Chat being adorable and clumsy, F/M, First Aid, Flirting, Fluff, Help, Hurt/Comfort, MLB post season 3, Mouse Miraculous, Multichat - Freeform, Multimice, Multimouse multiplies, Ouch, Pain, Roses, SOS, Tenderness, knight in black leather, thorn in paw, thorns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:08:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22758295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicoyote/pseuds/cosmicoyote
Summary: Chat Noir finds himself stuck and unable to detransform after a little clumsy misstep. The result? Painful thorns in his hand... er,paw. He can't change back without possibly damaging his powers, so he sends out a distress signal to his partner. However, it's not Ladybug who comes to his aid; it's his sweet classmate who just so happens to be good at handling delicate procedures courtesy of her miraculous.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Multimouse
Series: When Cats and Mice Play [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1630588
Comments: 22
Kudos: 396





	A Thorn in Chat's Paw

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to start off by saying a big THANK YOU to everyone who read, commented, and left kudos for my Mouser fic! I was so overwhelmed by the amount of feedback and kind words! It inspired me to jump into this next story. You guys are absolutely amazing! :D ♥
> 
> ~
> 
> The inspiration for this story comes from the "Lion and Mouse" fable I read about as a kid. The original involved a mouse freeing a lion from a hunter's trap, but I vaguely remember an altered version where the lion gets a thorn in his paw and is unable to bite it out. The mouse saves him by pulling it out with his smaller teeth. ^_^

A piercing yowl like the sound of a cat being drenched in icy water mixed with a teenage boy's scream echoed throughout the Paris streets.

Why, oh, why did this always happen to him!? Why did he, Chat Noir, have to be cursed with such bad luck? Black cats were lucky in some cultures while an omen of rotten misfortune in others.

Why was he not being blessed with the former!?

All he had wanted to do was bring flowers to his friend, and it had resulted in this... painful calamity. Catastrophe. Whatever.

Chat couldn't even pun mentally he was so annoyed and in pain.

You would think his magic superhero suit would grant him some protection. He had been thrown through the air and crashed into cars at neck-breaking speeds only to emerge a little sore but otherwise unharmed. But noooo - his suit had to be undone by a couple of tiny thorns. They were small, yes, but holy hairballs did they sting! The worst part wasn't the pain, either; it was the fact he couldn't transform back into himself and seek medical aid as himself. Like before with Chloé's bracelet, Plagg couldn't transform with something outside attached to him. Plagg was basically part of the suit, so if he changed back now with the thorns stabbing into him through the suit, he would damage his powers.

He didn't want that, but the pain a few petite thorns could produce was enough to be tempting if only it meant ending his misery.

After his initial panic, Chat Noir took calming breaths and huddled behind a large smokestack above an abandoned factory just a short distance from his original destination. He lowered a bouquet of pink roses, the culprits to his current discomfort, to the ground then winced as he grabbed his baton with his uninjured left hand. (Of course, his wounded hand had to be the one with his miraculous on it.) He then pressed his thumb to the green cat's paw that matched the one on his ring and brought up his phone.

He cleared his throat as he dialed Ladybug's number. His heart raced in panic as each ring tone carried. Her photo, which showed her smiling and giving a peace sign to the camera, appeared and gave some relief to his panic. She would know what to do. Ladybug always had a plan...

Finally, her image appeared, and his heart leapt. "M'lady!"

"Hey, Kitty." She smiled a little nervously. He couldn't see much of her background, but he thought she was huddled in a... closet? He could see coats hanging around her as she huddled, her face illuminated by the screen of her yoyo phone. "What's up?"

"I uh..." Chat grimaced. "I may have gotten myself into a... _prickly_ situation." When she looked perplexed, he held out his right hand and showed her the thorns lodged in his palm and in the corner of his ring finger.

"Oh, Chat," she grumbled. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do it on purpose!" he yelped, trying to ignore the sting in his skin when he flexed his fingers reflexively. "I was taking flowers to... to a friend, and I slipped and..." He grimaced. "I may have dropped them, and I tried to grab them to keep them from being damaged and..."

"You forgot they had thorns on the stems, didn't you?" Her narrowed blue eyes put emphasis on her dry tone.

His cat ears drooped. "Yes," he mumbled. "But it's not entirely my fault! The protective wrapping fell off! That's why they slid out of my hand!"

Ladybug pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay... How lodged are they?"

Chat grimaced. "I tried to use my claws, but they're stuck good and too small for me to grip... and they hurt!" He tried to keep the whine of panic out of his voice. "And I can't change back without damaging my powers!" His voice had risen in octave, anyway.

"Calm down," she soothed, and he forced himself to take steadying breaths. When he was a tad more focused, she spoke gently but firmly.

"Kitty, I need you to stay put. I'll send help." She frowned. "Unless I can get my lucky charm to produce magical tweezers, you're stuck. I have a better idea."

The cat hero gulped and forced a smile on his lips. "I'm all ears, Little Bug."

She smiled back at him. "I'll be sending a friend to meet you. Her abilities will be more quick and less painful than me holding you down with tweezers."

He grimaced at the image, and she had the audacity to laugh at his expense. When he just pouted at her, she shook her head. "Don't worry. She can help. Just stay where you are so I can hone in on your location and send her right to you. Okay?"

"Okay," he mumbled. "I'll stay." He really just wanted to scratch the pesky thorns out of his skin-

"Don't touch them," she said severely as if reading his mind. "You'll just make it worse. Think of stupid cat puns to keep your mind off of them."

He smirked. "I _purr-_ omise to behave and not _claws_ more of a fuss while I wait." His smirk grew into a wide grin.

She gave him a look then disconnected the call.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Multimouse hurried along the roofs of a more industrial area of Paris that hadn't seen its prime for several decades. It was quieter out here, and she knew this part of town could get a little unsafe at night, but she was a superhero and currently bounding along the rooftops. She was safe enough, and it was still pretty bright out, anyway.

So, the mouse was on her way to save the distressed cat.

She giggled at the thought in spite of herself. She really did feel bad that Chat Noir was in pain, but the whole situation was just so typical of him. Maybe more for her, if anything. 

Marinette was the epitome of clumsy, so this sounded more like something she would do. She would never admit it to his face, but Chat could be graceful when he wanted to be and embodied the fluidity of his miraculous animal. His bad luck is what brought on these situations.

She frowned as she closed in on her destination. So, she was a lucky klutz, and he was graceful but plagued by misfortune? Poor kitty.

Multimouse landed lightly on the roof opposite her pouting partner and smiled, hand on her hip. "Hey there, clumsy kitty," she teased as she greeted him. "What did you get yourself into now?"

Chat Noir's head shot up and he smiled a little as he got to his feet. His eyes were round with surprise even as he huffed with relief. "H-Hey... I thought Ladybug couldn't give you a miraculous anymore?" He faltered as if afraid of offending her. "I mean-! It's perfectly okay that she still gave you one and everything! I just thought..." He stumbled over his words and pinned his cat ears to his head.

She smiled softly at him. "Ladybug made an exception. She said you sounded scared, and she saw your hand." She walked up to him, and he gave her a shy look that made her heart warm. "Can I see?"

He held his hand to his chest protectively and swallowed, his eyes averted. He was nervous and in pain, so it was understandable he was hesitant to offer a weakness to her. Plus, they didn't know each other super well. At least, he thought that was the case.

Multimouse smiled and softened her tone, "Gimme paw, kitty kitty. I won't start pulling them out just yet. I just wanna see."

His green eyes lifted, and she saw real fear in them. He had said his transformation back into himself would result in damaging his powers. To her knowledge, it could hurt his kwami, too. After a long moment, he held out his hand to her, his arm trembling faintly.

She gently cupped his hand in her own and traced his fingers with her free hand. He whimpered a little, and she made a soothing sound in her throat instinctively. He had three thorns in his palm and two more in his ring finger just below his miraculous, and thumb. Most of them, except for the one at the heel of his palm, looked relatively deep.

"Did you try cataclysm?" she asked with a frown.

He swallowed hard. "N-No..."

"Try," she murmured. "Just in case." She stepped back and looked at him expectantly.

He looked nervous. "What if it doesn't, and I detransform back a-and damage my powers, anyway?"

Multimouse bit her lip. "That is a possibility." She crossed her arms, one hand resting under her chin and looking at his hand thoughtfully as if this were one of her projects and she was looking for a way to fix the snag.

After a moment, she snapped her fingers. "How about I use my powers to get as many of the thorns out as I can. If I can't get one, we'll let your destructive mojo take care of what remains. If it doesn't work... most of them should be out anyway."

Chat grimaced then took a deep breath before exhaling. "Alright."

Multimouse smiled and offered a hand. "Why don't we go somewhere where we can hide, okay?"

She lead him to an empty apartment that stood alongside the Seine River. There were some changing dividers with floral patterns on them and a yoga mat, but the room was otherwise barren.

"Why here?" Chat asked as he sat down on the mat. 

"It's... it's where the Guardian used to live," Multimouse murmured, her heart aching at the thought of the kind old man. "Ladybug said we could use it because it's more inconspicuous than my own house."

Chat Noir nodded. 

"Plus, I prefer not to use my powers out in the open if it can be avoided." Multimouse knelt in front of him and took his injured hand in hers again. She frowned and looked up at him. "Okay, Kitty. I need you to trust me, okay?" She had grabbed hydrogen peroxide and cloths. The tweezers had made him turn pale, but the ones lodged deep in his flesh weren't coming out so easily.

Chat gave her scared kitten eyes, and she rubbed his fake ear playfully. "I'll do my best not to hurt you." She grimaced. "But just in case..." She grabbed one of the towels and he bit down on it nervously to test it before laying it over his knee.

"It'll be okay."

Deep, trusting eyes met hers and he shivered before leaning his good hand back to support his weight, his legs out.

She waited until he nodded before standing back and unraveling her jump rope from her waist. She then beamed and began jumping, the rope striking the floor before she stopped and waved it around in a display much more dramatic than her lucky charm as Ladybug or his cataclysm.

"Multitude!" she said as she tossed her rope which wrapped around her. As the light burst around her then started to fade, she began to divide into smaller versions of herself. She only needed a couple, so she toned it down to just five smaller Multimice.

Chat blinked down at her, now a giant to her eyes. 

Explaining how her power worked is somewhat difficult to put into words. A little bit of her conscious mind is in every one of her little clones, so she can control them. She focused herself on the mouse that would be pulling out the thorns and hurried up to her gigantic partner.

"A hand, please?" she called up to him.

Chat smiled and offered her his uninjured hand as he leaned against the wall for support. The sun still filtering in gave her light, but she had him turn on a lamp that was left behind anyway. 

The main Multimouse climbed onto his palm, and he lifted her up to his thorny paw.

He grimaced. "I... I trust you, little mouse," he murmured, his ears slanted.

"It'll be okay," soothed another one of her clones as she climbed his arm to his shoulder. Another mouse stood opposite the other on his other shoulder and actually began stroking his hair. "Just breathe, Chaton."

He whimpered and bit into the towel. He shut his eyes as she straddled his wrist and put her small hands around the thorn in the heel of his palm. He squeezed his eyes closed and turned his face away as her two clones on his shoulders soothed him.

The others had grabbed the hydrogen peroxide and towels to stop any blood if need be.

Multimouse took a bracing breath as she straddled his wrist like someone would a nervous stallion and looked up at his face. "Do you want me to count?" she asked.

He swallowed hard and nodded, a small whimper escaping him. Poor thing.

"One... two... three!" she pulled, and to her immense relief, the thorn came free. A small cut was left behind - just a small scratch in the leather glove and a cut in his palm. She barely had time to register this before he flinched. She dropped the thorn as she wrapped her arms around his wrist to keep from flying off.

"Chat!" she scolded.

Her cat partner whimpered again, his mouth still plugged by the rag. He looked so pathetic that her two clones on his shoulders patted his cheeks and stroked his hair soothingly.

Multimouse huffed. "Don't squish me," she threatened as she shimmied up his hand to kneel on his palm. His fingers trembled around her, and she had a terrifying image of his clawed digits closing in on her and smooshing her into a Multimouse pancake.

She shook herself of her nightmarish panic then reached for a thorn beneath his index finger. This one was in considerably deeper, and she already knew this would be harder. "Breathe, Kitty," she murmured.

His chest was rising and falling more with panic than pain. He swallowed and relaxed his hand, taking soothing breaths as he fought to focus and remain still for her. "O...Okay," he whispered before putting the rag back in his teeth.

Multimouse grabbed the wedged thorn and wiggled it experimentally. Chat gasped and his fingers tightened, but he didn't flatten her. She took her own calming breaths then murmured, "One... two... and three!" she pulled, and the thorn began sliding out of his skin. Chat Noir's muffled yelps of pain nearly jarred her, but she held on and kept pulling.

By the time it was out, Chat was shuddering and gasping as if she were digging bullets out of him instead of thorn splinters. Her clones soothed him and cleaned his hand as she went to work.

At last, there was only one thorn left in his thumb. Chat Noir shook his head as she reached for it. Tears were in his eyes from the pain. Sure, they were small and not bullets, but they were in his nerve-sensitive hand, and it wasn't as if he could hold it perfectly still.

"You've done so well, Kitty," Multimouse murmured. She grimaced when her miraculous began to flash in warning. Shoot! She didn't have enough time. She hastily leapt off of his hand and landed in front of him. The rest of the mice hurried toward her, and she began to grow back into her normal-sized self.

Multimouse stood before a quivering Chat Noir as she finished changing back. Her necklace flashed, and she grimaced.

Chat wobbled as he stood and grinned at her. "We're the same size again," he murmured weakly.

"Here, let me-"

"I got it!" Chat jerked his hand away and whispered, "Cataclysm!" hastily.

She watched as he recoiled in pain, and the black destructive magic sputtered from his hand like a lighter low on fluid. He growled in pain, and the last one crumbled a little. It was if his powers were damaged due to the thorns.

Multimouse watched him growl and clench his hand closed. When he opened it, the last of the thorn was nothing but a speck of ash. She checked his hand to make sure every little bit was out before she doused his hand in peroxide.

Chat Noir's yowl was only staunched when she jammed the cloth back in his mouth. He whimpered and shook all over as she held his hand in a firm grip. She didn't even blink when her transformation dissolved and she was Marinette again.

Mullo landed on her shoulder, but the mouse kwami patiently waited for his sustenance while she tended to her shaking friend. When his hand was bandaged, Chat Noir sighed in relief. "Thanks, Princess." He grinned at her.

"Anytime, kitty." Marinette smiled as she dug out a cookie and fed it to Mullo.

Chat walked passed her and carefully picked up his discarded roses with his left hand. He sniffed them then twitched his belt tail.

Marinette transformed back into Multimouse and stretched, her twin buns in place. "Well, you were a good patient. I appreciate you not flattening me."

He chuckled shyly and rubbed the back of his neck. "You did a good job, Pri-... er, Little Mouse. I'm sorry I was such a wimp."

"I understand," Multimouse said softly. "I'd be cursing and lashing out, too."

Chat chuckled. "I'm sure such a sweet and innocent girl like yourself doesn't have a single dirty word in her vocabulary."

She gave him a dry look, and he laughed.

 _"Anyway,"_ she grumbled pointedly. "Who were you giving those roses to, anyway?" She thought it would be Ladybug, but how was he supposed to find her? Maybe she could offer to take them-

"Actually," Chat murmured, his gaze drifting down timidly. Was he blushing? His mask obscured most of his face, but she could see his skin turning pink just beneath the rims of that which protected his identity. "They... They were actually for you, Princess."

Her eyes widened behind her own mask, and he smiled shyly. His belt tail lifted behind him slowly as he bowed a little, putting his bandaged hand behind his back, as he offered her the bouquet of slightly rumpled roses. His green eyes shined with warmth as he presented them to her like a knight to his lady.

Her knight in black leather as he jokingly referred himself to her at times.

He was such a dork, but he was her wonderful and kind dork.

Multimouse blushed herself then took the bouquet and inhaled the sweet fragrance of the flowers. She blinked shyly up at him. "Th-Thank you..."

Chat Noir's entire body seemed to relax for the first time since she met up with him on the rooftop to assess his dilemma. "Anything for you, Princess," he purred.

Gosh, he was such a flirt. She booped his nose, and he chuckled softly. "Tomcat," she teased.

"I owe you big time, Little Mouse," he murmured. "It looks like my damaged hand wouldn't have been able to save me with my powers, so I would've been forced to transform injured." He frowned at his blinking ring, warning him his time was limited. "Plagg could've been hurt, and I don't know what I'd do."

"Clean that before bed," Multimouse instructed him as they jumped onto the roof of the empty apartment. After locking up, she was assured it would be secure and safe.

Chat took her hand and pressed his lips to the back of it. He straightened and gave her a wink before bowing gallantly. "I better scat before my time runs out. See ya around, Little Mouse." With that, he drew his baton and catapulted across the the streets into the setting sun.

Smiling, Multimouse took her gift of roses home and slipped into her room. After dropping her transformation, she put the roses in a vase of water and placed them beside her computer so she could look at them often.

She nervously rubbed the hand he had kissed as she placed the mouse miraculous back in the miracle box then put in her ladybug earrings.

Tikki appeared and looked around before spotting the gorgeous flowers and gasping. "Marinette! Who gave you those!?"

"Chat Noir," Marinette replied shyly. "After I cleaned up his hand, he told me the flowers were for me."

"Wow!" Tikki whizzed around excitedly. "That was so sweet of him!"

"Clumsy cat," Marinette murmured affectionately. "He was bringing them here, and he hurt himself when he tripped."

"Sounds like you two are made for each other," Tikki said slyly.

Marinette's face exploded with color as the kwami laughed at her owner's expense.

**Author's Note:**

> Again, thank you so much, amazing readers! I was so humbled by the comments and praise.
> 
> The next story will be set in a medieval period, so stay tuned! ^.^


End file.
